We recently connected with Aaron Larget-Caplan and have shared our conversation below.

Aaron, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I do make my living and support my family through creative work, though ‘creative work’ includes performing, recording, arranging, publishing, teaching, coaching, speaking and writing, networking, grant writing, and fundraising.

These avenues took years to build though some, like composing, are relatively recent. I consciously started the process of building a career as a student at the New England Conservatory by signing up for courses that I thought would assist in the short term while I improved my abilities.

Once, I made the decision to be a professional musician, make my living with music, all my decisions since have been in support of that.

I did not come from a musical household and had very little guidance in creating a small business or working in the classical music industry.

Some of the things I did early on:

• Took a course on creating and performing educational programs for students, something along the lines of Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts. This connected me with Young Audiences of Massachusetts who hired me a year later. I learned to be able perform at any time for “difficult” audiences (teenagers!), while being paid.

• Visited the NEC Gig Office twice a day for years, which connected me to my first teaching position at the Community Music Center of Boston.

• Went to concerts outside of my instrument circle and introduced myself to composers that inspired me.

• Created a fan email list for newsletters.

• Participated in a free small business course presented by the City of Boston.

• Created a commissioning endeavor the ‘New Lullaby Project,’ which opened doors to more recording, publishing, and touring.

My main misstep was assuming it was a level playing field.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
A “master guitarist” (Fanfare) with “astounding technical proficiency and artistic delicacy” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), “whose bold and energetic presence underscored his talents as a musician and actor” (The Arts Fuse), classical guitarist and composer Aaron Larget-Caplan is an international touring and recording artist and educator.

He has performed solo and chamber music in Russia, Europe, Taiwan, and across the United States. At 16 he made his debut at the Tabor Opera House and has since premiered over 120 solo and chamber compositions, soloed with orchestras, performed for TEDx, directed concert series, created commissioning endeavors, and brought classical music into schools and communities. A gifted performer and speaker, he is sought for his deft programming of new and standard repertoire, while connecting with audiences with a Bernstein-esque ease. He has received numerous awards including from the Société Académique Arts-Sciences-Lettres of Paris, France for his trailblazing work in music, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Canada.

Mr. Larget-Caplan has eleven critically acclaimed solo recordings, which have earned over 7-millions streams since 2021: Tracing a wheel on water (2006), New Lullaby (2010), The Legend of Hagoromo (2015), John. Cage. Guitar. (2018), Nights Transfigured (2020), Drifting (2021), A Guitar Holiday (2021), honey cadence (2022), God’s Time – Music of J.S. Bach on Guitar (2022), Spanish Candy (2023), Spanish Gems (2024). He is a Stone Records (UK) and Tiger Turn recording artist and is featured as a soloist and chamber musician on albums issued by Albany, Navona, and the American Composers Alliance.

Mr. Larget-Caplan’s compositions are published by the American Composers Alliance. His arrangements of John Cage are the first to be sanctioned for guitar by the Cage Estate and are published by Edition Peters. They have received accolades from critics and musicians alike with the Polish publication Six Strings of the World writing the volumes have “ennobled our instrument.” His latest published arrangement, ‘Mystic Flute, Op 22’ by Alan Hovhaness was issued by Edition Peters in April 2024.

Larget-Caplan’s groundbreaking New Lullaby Project has seen the premiere of over 75 solos by 70 composers from eleven countries. Its three albums and two curated anthologies of scores are co-published with the American Composers Alliance (ACA), one of which won multiple Revere Awards from the Music Publishers Association of American.

As the founder of the Spanish classical music and flamenco dance ensemble ¡Con Fuego! (With Fire!), Larget-Caplan creates a passionate cross-fertilization of flamenco dance and Spanish classical music.

Aaron Larget-Caplan has received awards and grants from the American Composers Forum, Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, New England Foundation for the Arts, D’Addario Foundation, Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation, the Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture, and many more. He was named an ACME Honoree as a distinguished Artist and Educator by the international professional music fraternity Mu Phi Epsilon.

A composer and board member of the American Composers Alliance, Mr. Larget-Caplan’s faculty appointments include the Boston Conservatory and University of Massachusetts Boston. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, he studied with David Leisner and Eliot Fisk, and coaching include pianists Stephen Drury and Seymour Bernstein. His principal teacher was Dmitry Goryachev. Larget-Caplan performs on an Olivier Fanton D’Andon guitar and Hannabach Strings. Raised in Colorado, he makes his home in Boston with his wife, healer and muse, Catherine.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I realized early on that if I wanted to be a doctor or lawyer, it would require 50-60 hours a week for a long time, while benefiting another. Yes, there would be a financial benefit, but it would I be happy.

I realized early on that I could spend that 50-60 a week on music, aka being happy, pay my bills and maybe receive some recognition for the work.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Turn off the news, get off socials, and attend live music events. Take your kids to live music events and ask your kid’s schools to host artists for educational and entertaining programming,

In essence create the community you want to live in.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://alcguitar.com
• Instagram: @alcguitar
• Facebook: @alcguitar
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronlc/
• Twitter: @alcguitar
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/aaronlcguitar
• Other: New Lullaby Project: https://www.alcguitar.com/newlullaby/
  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3SQ8wM04jpHcSbPM6Rl2BL
  Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/artists/B003S1NLC2/aaron-larget-caplan?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_ydiNYY1gwSRnajiQmejliAMcZ
  Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/aaron-larget-caplan/377044838
  Bandcamp: https://alcguitar.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits

Catherine Larget-Caplan